How do I make a Wikipedia page in 2026?
You want a Wikipedia page in 2026? The process hasn’t changed since 2020—it’s still free, volunteer-run, and straightforward. Build up some edit history first, draft your article offline, gather solid citations, then submit through Articles for Creation (AfC). No shortcuts, no fees, just patience and good sources.
Quick fix: Open an account, wait until you’re autoconfirmed (four days plus ten edits), write your draft offline, add at least five independent citations, then file it through Wikipedia:Articles for creation.
What’s actually happening on Wikipedia right now?
Wikipedia is still an open encyclopedia powered by volunteers around the globe. To keep quality high, every brand-new article has to pass two tests—notability and verifiability. Notability means the topic has gotten real coverage in independent, reliable sources; verifiability means every nontrivial claim needs a published source to back it up. As of 2026, the only official way to propose a new page is through the Articles for Creation (AfC) pipeline Wikipedia:Wikipedia does not accept free content.
Walk me through the exact steps
- Set up your account properly.
Head to wikipedia.org, click Log in / Create account (top right). Enter a username, password, and a real email address. Having an account stops IP blocks and gives you an edit history—both are required for AfC reviewers Wikipedia:Why create an account?.
- Turn your account into autoconfirmed status.
After four days and at least ten edits that haven’t been reverted, your account flips to autoconfirmed automatically. Check your progress at Special:Contributions. Without this status, AfC submissions sit in a queue nobody can see.
- Write the draft offline in neutral language.
Compose the article in plain text (Google Docs or Notepad). Stick to the Manual of Style: short paragraphs, third-person, neutral tone. Skip “I,” “we,” or promotional phrases; even mild conflict-of-interest wording can get you rejected fast Wikipedia:Conflict of interest.
- Collect at least five independent, citable sources.
Every sentence that isn’t common knowledge needs a footnote. Good sources include major newspapers, peer-reviewed journals, government reports, or well-known reference works. All must be publicly accessible with working URLs. Use Help:Citing sources to build proper
<ref> tags.
- File the submission through Articles for Creation.
While logged in, go to Wikipedia:Articles for creation. Click Start a new submission. Paste your draft, wrap every citation in
<ref></ref> tags, and add {{subst:New article boilerplate}} at the very top to auto-fill the templates. Hit submit. Volunteer reviewers usually reply within three to seven days.
What if my first attempt gets rejected?
- Stop pushing the new page and fix your edit history instead. If AfC turns you down for “lack of notability,” don’t keep resubmitting. Edit existing articles—aim for Good Article or Featured Article candidates—to build up credible edits before trying again.
- Try a user subpage first.
Create
/YourUsername/Draft/Topic title (for example, /Example/Draft/Noted Sculptor). Let the community review it for at least a week. If people like it, copy the text into a fresh AfC submission and link back to the subpage for reviewers to see the history Wikipedia:User subpages.
- Bring in a neutral partner. If the topic is an organization, ask a GLAM partner (Galleries, Libraries, Archives, Museums) or university librarian to publish under their banner. That removes most conflict-of-interest flags and makes sourcing more transparent Wikipedia:GLAM.
How can I keep the page alive once it’s live?
Think of the page as a living document. Every three months, scan for fresh citations—press releases, award announcements, obituaries—and update the references. Put the article on your watchlist so you get edit alerts. When vandalism spikes or edit-warring starts, file a semi-protection request at Wikipedia:Requests for page protection to lock the page for 7–30 days Wikipedia:Protection policy.
